Armor of God Baptism Cake

This cake was one of the first comissions I've ever had. The family is LDS and wanted a cake to celebrate their son's baptism at age 8. I was told his favorite color was orange. And I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he chose chocolate. His mother requested a cherry filling and wanted two layers. Otherwise I had pretty free reign.

I chose my vegan chocolate cake recipe and used vanilla buttercream to keep too many flavors from mixing together. The filling was canned cherries mixed with cherry jam.

I made a 9 inch and 6 inch layers.
I also made some of the decorations a few days ahead of time to let them dry solid.

After stacking and crumb coating the layers, I covered them in fondant. The lower layer was covered in orange. The store bought orange fondant I bought was extremely bright, practically neon, so I mixed it one to one with white to tone down the brightness. I also added cut pieces of wooden skewers to add stability to the lower layer. I also cut a six inch round piece of cardboard and covered it in aluminum foil to go between the layers. The upper layer was covered in white fondant.

Then, at the very top, I wanted to add a Book of Mormon. The classic color is navy blue, but all I had was bright blue, so I mixed it one to one with black... which ended up waaaaayyyy too dark. I then started scouring my kitchen for more blue. After adding all the blue fondant I had, I got the ratio down to maybe 4:1, which is still quite dark, so learn from my mistakes. A little black fondant goes a looong way to darken a color.

The book was a loaf pan of cake cut in half to make it smaller and then in half again to make it thin enough to be a book. I covered it in vanilla buttercream and then lost all the buttercream from the bottom when I picked it back up. I put the strip of white on first and then the random darky blueish color fondant around the other 3 sides. I came up just slightly short on the piece I cut, but I added another piece patched on and made that the bottom of the book.

Then I put the decorations on with water with a paintbrush. The concept was the armor of God and the Holy Ghost. The figurine on the top was purchased on Amazon and slightly resembled the boy being baptized. He was so happy with it, he refused to let it be cut into at the baptism.